This report underscores the urgent need for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes and take action to prevent their marketing and sales to kids, as it is authorized to do under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The FDA stated more than three years ago that it planned to assert jurisdiction over e-cigarettes and all other tobacco products, and it sent draft regulations to the White House Office of Management and Budget more than six months ago. But these regulations have yet to be issued.

Many of the marketing tactics being used by e-cigarette manufacturers are now illegal for regular cigarettes because they have been found to be effective at enticing kids to smoke. In addition, federal law prohibits the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors. However, federal regulations currently do not apply to e-cigarettes.

The new congressional report shows that the Administration’s failure to regulate e-cigarettes is putting our kids at risk. It is unacceptable that it has taken the Administration so long to act while e-cigarette use and marketing has grown rapidly. As the congressional report concludes, “e-cigarette companies are taking advantage of the regulatory vacuum that currently exists to market their products to youth.”

The new report stems from an investigation of e-cigarettes launched by the lawmakers in September. They wrote to the chief executives of nine e-cigarette companies, asking them to respond to specific questions about their marketing and sales practices. Supplemental information was gathered from company websites and other publicly available sources.

Responsibly marketed and properly regulated, e-cigarettes could benefit public health if they help significantly reduce the number of people who use conventional cigarettes and die of tobacco-related disease. However, they also pose serious potential threats to public health. They could serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction and use of regular cigarettes by kids and other non-users. They could reduce the number of smokers who quit if smokers use them in addition to, and not instead of, regular cigarettes. If they continue to be irresponsibly marketed, they could make smoking look glamorous again and undermine decades of work to reduce youth smoking. Effective regulation by the FDA and the states is needed to minimize the potential harms of e-cigarettes and maximize any potential benefits.